The Wounds Within home study course will deepen your grasp of the key challenges for active duty and veteran military personnel and their families to better prepare you as a mental health professional.

The Wounds Within engages the reader in a detailed and compelling drama of a Marine who deployed early in the Iraq war, battled PTSD after returning home and ultimately took his own life. The story describes the family’s struggle and depicts their powerful advocacy after their son’s death, which led to systemic reforms including improved services. The book is written from the perspective of Mark Nickerson, LICSW, who worked closely with the Marine and his family.

The story expands beyond the central narrative and offers "big picture" information and perspective including many significant features of the post-9/11 wars.

The Wounds Within portrays the transition from war zone to home zone and the array of difficult and clinically relevant issues for combat veterans and their families as they recover and reintegrate into post combat life (SEE BELOW). Practical information is made vivid with multiple examples. EMDR therapy and the AIP theory are presented in understandable terms with a transcript example of effective treatment and recovery from PTSD. The book urges civilian-based clinicians to step up and be prepared to effectively serve our veterans in the coming years.

Clinically related content includes:

* war zone to home zone adjustment

* challenges for families and loved ones

* understanding and reducing stigma

* continuum of combat stress responses

* the many faces of military PTSD

* addressing suicide risk

* survivor guilt

* moral injury

* depression

* substance abuse

* anger/violence

* relational difficulties

* overcoming "You just can’t understand me."

* how psychological trauma is a physical wound

* understanding traumatic memories

* the adaptive information processing model

* evidence-based treatment options

* detailed clinical example of EMDR therapy

* community resources

* resilience and posttraumatic growth

The Wounds Within has been used as a text for college course discussion.

Student comments:

"… thank you for wanting to tell this difficult, but incredibly moving story… you established the issue and the needs, highlighted the successes, and tied it all together with a recovery methodology that anyone can understand. It has opened my eyes and given me direction…"

"I picked up this book with the intention of skimming it before the assigned reading, but found myself unable to put it down and I read it in its entirety in one sitting. It is informative, but provides a respectful and sensitive tone, which is important, as those traits are sometimes lost when discussing such serious conditions. I found your explanation of EMDR therapy to be thought-provoking."

"This book hit very close to home for me. I truly found The Wounds Within to be invaluable, I recommend it to everyone, especially those who have a loved one in the military."

"As more and more of our veterans return from abroad, your firsthand experience dealing with some of the struggles they face at home serves as an invaluable information and guide not only to those who suffer from the disorder but to everyone affected by war."

"As a veteran myself who proudly served in the Navy, your professional and objective voice means that much more because I know how hard it can be for us veterans to open up about some of the difficult things we have witnessed overseas."

Endorsements for The Wounds Within

"An eloquent and haunting account of veterans who return home fighting the war within." — Francine Shapiro, PhD, originator of EMDR therapy and author of Getting Past Your Past

"A powerful family drama and a reminder of the price veterans pay long after the fighting ends." — Oliver Stone, Director, Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July

"Kevin and Joyce Lucey are true American heroes. They have been tenacious, passionate, highly-effective advocates for IAVA members worldwide-and for all veterans, of all generations. Nobody in America has done more to bring awareness to the shocking suicide crisis facing our veterans than the Luceys." — Paul Rieckhoff, Executive Director and Founder, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)

"The cost of war cannot be measured in the lives and treasure expended on the battlefield – it demands a price to be paid long after the guns are still. Call it the hidden war. In The Wounds Within, we follow Mark Nickerson as he joins that hidden war and discovers the battles beyond those of the therapist’s office." — Steven Silver, Ph.D., Vietnam veteran and former director of PTSD Program, VA Medical Center in Coatesville, PA; Author of Light in the Heart of Darkness: EMDR and the Treatment of War and Terrorism Survivors

"War is changing, and one of the biggest changes is in our understanding of what it does to veterans. This moving and eye-opening book will be a landmark in our country’s efforts to come to terms with a growing tragedy." — Steven Pinker, Harvard University, author of The Better Angels of Our Nature

"Nickerson’s resilient quest to learn more about PTSD is inspirational, heartfelt and genuine. No blame games, just a positive focus on solutions. The Wounds Within is and will remain timeless." — Brig. Gen. (ret.) Colleen McGuire, director, US Army Suicide Prevention Task Force, 2008-12

"The Wounds Within is so powerfully written that the pages just seem to turn themselves. Thank you for writing a book that can save lives." — Carol Graham, wife of Major General (Retired) Mark Graham who lost one son to suicide and the other to the war in Iraq. Their family’s story is told in Yochi Dreazen’s new book The Invisible Front.

"The Wounds Within dignifies one family’s ordeal by embedding it within the nation’s responsibility to understand and serve its veterans at their lowest points. This book offers hope and guidance to keep our veterans visible and to promote recovery and reintegration." — Carol Trust, executive director, Massachusetts chapter, National Association of Social Workers

WHAT’S AVAILABLE?

Online Course and Book: $79.00 with free shipping *BEST VALUE*

Online Course ONLY (for those who’ve previously purchased a copy of The Wounds Within: $59.00